Behind the faces of the 2012 election is a technology campaign that’s taken on greater importance over the years. The popular technology website, Mashable.com, is out with a new e-book that pulls the curtain back on the role that the Internet, social media and technology writ large are playing in the 2012 cycle, especially in the area of branding.

“Four years in Internet time is an eternity, and the landscape of social media has predictably changed in profound ways,” the book states in its introduction. “Social may still not be a fully mature medium — none of its major players have yet hit the decade mark — but it is clearly no longer just a throw-in. A recent study from branding agency Digitas found that 88% of U.S. adults on social media are registered voters, and that over half will use social media to learn about the presidential election. It’s no wonder that in the campaign offices of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, digital strategists have been given a seat at the big kids’ table.”

The book lists the top players behind Washington’s digital campaigns and they include Blue State Digital, Engage, Targeted Victory & NGP VAN.

“The world has caught up to what Obama did in 2008,” Allen Adamson, managing director for branding firm Landor Associates, says in the book. “It’s gone from a niche and targeted marketing in 2008 to now it’s mass,” with many more tools and an increase in technological sophistication. “The arsenal that they have — both candidates as well as the potential impact — is much bigger.”

While there is plenty of praise in the book for how both the Mitt Romney and Obama campaigns grew their technological expertise between 2008 and 2012, their slogans don’t get thumbs up.

The book paraphrases Sterling Brands president Debbie Millman as saying that “she was hoping to see an evolution of Obama’s 2008 identity into something ‘fresher,’ although it’s to his credit his campaign is still using a red path logo in the zero of 2012.

“‘That’s smart to keep that as a centerpiece of his campaign,’ said Millman. ‘But I would have liked to have seen a clever augmentation or secondary device to give him some more momentum with it.’”

The book calls Romney’s “Believe in America” and “We Built It” themes “even more obscure.”

“I don’t get that bumper sticker idea yet — other than ‘I know business’ and ‘I’m going to fix the economy,” said Adamson in the book. “From a brand point of view, you need a theme to be a strong brand. Most consumers don’t want to be confused. Ultimately, Romney might have the right stand on 100 issues, but if he doesn’t theme it together, it’s going to be hard’ to sell it.”

The book also focuses on how social media has caused the “unrelenting hype” of political gaffes.

“Social media is a politician’s best dream and worst nightmare — it boasts unlimited access to his constituency, but necessitates 24/7 supervision,” it says. “Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit and a lengthening list of social networks afford the electorate a (somewhat) unfiltered lens with which to view its candidates. Wit the social web, political hopefuls enjoy a powerful tool for engagement — and just enough rope to do serious damage.”

“The old adage used to be ‘don’t say anything you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of a newspaper.’ Now it might as well be ‘don’t say anything that can be boiled down into 140 characters,’” James Davis, the former communications director of the 2012 Republican National Convention, says in “Politics Transformed.”